50 Fun Facts About Lesotho

Lesotho is entirely surrounded by which country?

It is the largest of the world's three sovereign enclaves, alongside Vatican City and San Marino.

What is the capital and largest city of Lesotho?

It began as a British police camp on the Caledon River and its Sesotho name means "red sandstones".

Lesotho is the only independent state in the world lying entirely above what elevation?

Its lowest point, at 1,400 m, is the highest low point of any country, hence the nickname "Kingdom in the Sky".

What is Lesotho's lowest point above sea level, the highest "low point" of any country?

Maseru and the surrounding lowlands can still hit 30 °C in summer.

Which peak in Lesotho's Maloti Mountains is the highest in southern Africa, at 3,482 m?

It is ranked 11th in the world by topographic isolation and stands on the Mohlesi ridge.

Who founded the Basotho nation in the early 19th century and became Lesotho's first king?

A minor chief's son, he gathered refugees from the wars of Shaka's era into a single polity from about 1822.

Lesotho's founding king made his stronghold on which sandstone plateau, whose name means "Mountain at Night"?

He spread the story that the mountain grew larger at night to scare off enemies; it was never taken by force.

Which missionaries settled at Morija from 1833 and created written Sesotho?

Thomas Arbousset, Eugène Casalis and Constant Gosselin printed the first works in Sesotho between 1837 and 1855.

Lesotho's first king appealed to which monarch in 1868 to make his land a British protectorate?

The 1869 Treaty of Aliwal North then halved his kingdom by ceding the western lowlands to the Orange Free State.

Under what name was Lesotho known as a British colony?

It became a Crown colony in 1884 with Maseru as capital, after a period under the Cape Colony that sparked the Gun War.

The Basuto Gun War of 1880–1881 broke out during whose administration of the territory?

The Basotho were humiliated by being treated like a conquered territory after the 1871 transfer.

On what date did the British colony become the independent Kingdom of Lesotho?

The new flag with the mokorotlo was adopted exactly 40 years later, on 4 October 2006.

Which prime minister refused to hand over power after losing the 1970 election, ruling until 1986?

His BNP had lost 36 seats to 23; he jailed the opposition leadership instead.

Who became King of Lesotho in 1996, having also reigned briefly from 1990 to 1995?

His father Moshoeshoe II died when his car plunged off a mountain road in January 1996; the king's role is largely ceremonial.

In 2000 Lesotho's king declared what to be a natural disaster?

Nearly a quarter of the population tests positive; a 2010 petition even called for annexation by South Africa to save life expectancy.

Troops from which regional body intervened in Lesotho in 1998, leaving much of the capital in ruins?

South African and Botswanan forces entered after post-election protests; rioting flared when a South African flag was raised over the palace.

Prime Minister Thomas Thabane stepped down in 2020 after being named a suspect in whose murder?

He had already fled to South Africa for three days during an alleged coup attempt in 2014.

Who was sworn in as Lesotho's prime minister on 28 October 2022?

The businessman formed a coalition after Majoro resigned following a no-confidence vote.

The Basotho make up what share of Lesotho's population, one of the most homogeneous in the world?

The country takes its name from the Sotho people, whose language Sesotho is official alongside English, IsiXhosa and SiPhuthi.

What black object sits at the centre of Lesotho's blue, white and green flag?

The 2006 design replaced a flag bearing a shield, spear and knobkerrie and symbolises peace with its only neighbour.

The conical mokorotlo hat is believed to be inspired by the shape of which mountain?

The straw hat also appears on Lesotho's vehicle licence plates.

The Basotho blanket, Lesotho's national dress, was originally made of what?

Most are now acrylic, made by the firm Aranda across the border in South Africa; a husband gifts his wife a Serope blanket at their first child's birth.

Director Ryan Coogler said Lesotho inspired his depiction of which fictional country in a 2018 film?

Basotho blankets became far better known worldwide after Black Panther.

What is the currency of Lesotho?

The plural is maloti; it is pegged 1:1 to the South African rand, which is also legal tender.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project sends Orange River water mainly to which South African region?

Its first phase made Lesotho almost self-sufficient in electricity and earned about US$70 million from water and power sales in 2010.

Katse Dam on the Malibamatšo River is Africa's second-largest example of what type of dam?

Only Ethiopia's Tekezé Dam is bigger of the type; the project may eventually include five large dams.

Lesotho's Letšeng mine is the world's richest diamond mine measured by what?

Its stones average about US$2,172 per carat, and it produced the giant Lesotho Promise.

Under AGOA, Lesotho became sub-Saharan Africa's largest exporter of what to the US?

Brands sourcing from Lesotho have included Levi Strauss, Gap, Lululemon and Timberland; most workers are women.

Into how many districts is Lesotho divided?

Each is headed by a district administrator; the districts split into 80 constituencies and 129 community councils.

What was Lesotho's adult literacy rate as of 2021, among the highest in Africa?

The country invests over 12% of its GDP in education.

Roughly what share of Lesotho's population is Christian?

The Catholic Church is organised under the Archbishop of Maseru with three suffragan bishops.

The Maletsunyane Falls, 192 m high, plunge near which town whose name means "Site of smoke"?

Semonkong Lodge holds a Guinness record for the world's longest commercially operated abseil there, at 204 m.

Afriski, one of only two ski resorts in sub-Saharan Africa, sits at roughly what altitude?

It lies just below the Mahlasela Pass, about 4.5 hours' drive from Johannesburg.

The Sani Pass road into Lesotho climbs to what altitude at the border?

The steep gravel road, with gradients up to 1:3, crosses the Drakensberg escarpment from Himeville to Mokhotlong.

Sehlabathebe, Lesotho's first national park, is part of which World Heritage Site?

It was established on 8 May 1969 and supplies fresh water to Lesotho, South Africa and Namibia.

Which animal, once ridden into battle, is still used for transport and farming in Lesotho's mountains?

San rock art can be found in the mountains throughout the old Basutoland.

Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia and their large neighbour share which currency arrangement?

Lesotho is also in the Southern African Customs Union, whose receipts fund a big share of the budget.

The king who was restored in 1995 after exile died in what circumstances in January 1996?

He had set out at 1 am to visit his cattle at Matsieng and was returning to Maseru through the Maluti Mountains.

Which film was Lesotho's first submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, in 2020?

The film centres on an elderly widow resisting the flooding of her village for a dam.

In WHO's 2019 estimates, Lesotho had the world's highest age-standardised rate of what?

It also ranked as having the world's highest incidence of tuberculosis.

The Basotho blanket was originally a gift to the founding king from a British man known only as what?

By 1872 blankets had largely replaced sheepskin karosses as everyday coverings.

The Letšeng diamond pipes were discovered in December 1957 by which geologist?

De Beers later closed the mine in 1982 before Keith Whitelock took the lease and developed it.

Lesotho was a public opponent of which system in its neighbour, granting asylum to its refugees?

The country keeps close ties with the UK, Wales in particular, Germany and the US.

What does the Sesotho name of Lesotho's highest peak literally mean?

The name breaks down as thaba (mountain), the diminutive -na, ntle (beautiful) and yana (little one).

What is Lesotho's national dish?

Lesotho is also famed for its fermented ginger beer.

Besides 11 royal appointees, how many hereditary principal chiefs sit in Lesotho's Senate?

The lower house is the National Assembly, where the Revolution for Prosperity leads a coalition.

Lesotho's codified customary law is known by what name?

A council appointed in 1903 wrote down customs previously passed on by oral tradition.

What was the 601-carat diamond found in the mountains by a Mosotho woman in 1967 named?

The 603-carat Lesotho Promise followed from the Letšeng mine in 2006.

In 1869 the British and the Boers signed a boundary treaty for Basutoland at which town?

The treaty roughly halved Moshoeshoe's kingdom by ceding the western territories.

Lesotho was the last African nation to report a case of which disease, on 13 May 2020?

The report came from the country's health ministry.